Jump to content


Photo

Circuit des Remparts 18-20 September 2009


  • Please log in to reply
15 replies to this topic

#1 Alan Cox

Alan Cox
  • Member

  • 8,397 posts
  • Joined: March 03

Posted 15 July 2009 - 19:24

Angouleme's annual Circuit des Remparts meeting is held on the third weekend of September (how rare these days for an event to stick to its traditional date) and this year celebrates the 70th anniversary of the first running of the event and the organisers are hoping to assemble cars to recreate that first grid from 1939.

Matra will be he honoured marque, with a demonstration of single-seaters to include MS6, MS10, MS11, Championship-winning MS80, and MS120, while Sir Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, Henri Pescarolo, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Jean-Pierre Jabouille will all be on hand, as well as Francois Guiter, former head of Elf competitions department who was responsible for the 'Volant Elf' scheme which supported young French drivers.

There will also be gatherings to commemorate Morgan's 100th anniversary, and a display of Le Mans Bentleys. The weekend begins with a Concours d'Elegance on Friday followed by the 'Rallye Touristique' on Saturday with a seven-race programme around the street circuit, unaltered in layout since 1939, on Sunday.


Edited by Alan Cox, 08 October 2015 - 08:58.


Advertisement

#2 Gary C

Gary C
  • Member

  • 5,569 posts
  • Joined: January 01

Posted 15 July 2009 - 20:09

sounds a bluddy great event. I've been through Angouleme a few times, always thinking of the circuit. I wish I could run my fford there!

#3 MCS

MCS
  • Member

  • 4,686 posts
  • Joined: June 03

Posted 15 July 2009 - 20:16

Crikey, the place is just tooooo narroooow for the likes of a Matra MS120 - not to mention the other ones...

I can remember my first (and only) visit a few years back whilst on holiday - inspired by one of Mr Cox's pieces in MotorSport - and being completely amazed by the place; this on a non-racing, sunny afternoon.

I'd love to be able to get along, but sadly doubt I'll manage it.

Alan, I take it you will be in attendance?

Edited by MCS, 15 July 2009 - 20:16.


#4 Alan Cox

Alan Cox
  • Member

  • 8,397 posts
  • Joined: March 03

Posted 15 July 2009 - 20:40

The odds are looking to be against it at the moment, Mark, although I would love to be there for the anniversary, and to see those Matras demonstrated.
No FF race this year, Gary, although there is a Formula France bash.

#5 Alan Cox

Alan Cox
  • Member

  • 8,397 posts
  • Joined: March 03

Posted 08 October 2015 - 08:55

Rather than start a new thread, here are a few snaps from this year's Circuit des Remparts

IMG_0595201_zps3jdcwtce.jpg

Barry Foster with his MG Montlhery - Sadly, he rolled it while lapping a back-marker but managed to escape with only light injuries

IMG_1097_zpslxast2nn.jpg

Tony Lees (Vauxhall Viper) and Andrew Howe-Davies (SCAT Racer) dicing past the Cathedral

IMG_1130_zpsbllpgd1j.jpg

Brian Ashley squeezes his A35 between Lean-Claude Penicaud's Studebaker and Jose Novais' Devin-Panhard

IMG_0763_zps882vondw.jpg

Bugatti race-winner, Rob Spencer (Type 35B)

IMG_0513_zpslrostdfp.jpg

Ashley's A35 in full flight

IMG_0378_zpseiq3me4w.jpg

Touring/GT cars during practice along the bottom straight

9ee4080e-6203-4192-a984-a8f7ba062090_zps

Early morning Bugatti practice



#6 kayemod

kayemod
  • Member

  • 9,571 posts
  • Joined: August 05

Posted 08 October 2015 - 11:12

Wonderful stuff, but seeing Alan's pics of the circuit, I'm amazed that they were ever granted permission to stage the event, though of course it's great that they did.

 

Don't they 'ave, ow you say? Le santé et sécurité en France?



#7 JMH

JMH
  • Member

  • 62 posts
  • Joined: February 07

Posted 08 October 2015 - 17:11

Barry F needed fixing up back here in the UK - a short stay in Hospital for a shoulder op & scraping out bits of French tarmac. Now back home on the mend. Made of tuff stuff MMM types......

 

JH



#8 alansart

alansart
  • Member

  • 4,419 posts
  • Joined: March 07

Posted 08 October 2015 - 17:23

Wonderful stuff, but seeing Alan's pics of the circuit, I'm amazed that they were ever granted permission to stage the event, though of course it's great that they did.

 

Don't they 'ave, ow you say? Le santé et sécurité en France?

The French have a wonderful way of doing things their own way.

 

I've spoken to Alan Cox about Angouleme on many occasion and would love to go but it always runs later than when I'm in France on holiday. Things are changing soon so hopefully I can pay a visit within the next few years.

I'm an 80's FF1600 racer and it reminds me of the Irish races around Ballyjamesduff. I would have loved taken part in one of those :)
 

 


Edited by alansart, 08 October 2015 - 17:23.


#9 Allan Lupton

Allan Lupton
  • Member

  • 4,050 posts
  • Joined: March 06

Posted 08 October 2015 - 18:22

Barry F needed fixing up back here in the UK - a short stay in Hospital for a shoulder op & scraping out bits of French tarmac. Now back home on the mend. Made of tuff stuff MMM types......

 

JH

Glad to know it's not worse.

I remember Barry racing his C type more or less anywhere in the UK that would have him, including a time when 750MC invited MMM cars to join in with their Austin 7 handicap races (I was the Handicapper) when he drove to (e.g.) Cadwell (from Somerset) to have a go.

If anyone asked if he worried about damaging the car, he could tell 'em it was bottom of the heap in a scrapyard when he found it, so it didn't matter historically!  Hope his attitude's not changed.



#10 David Birchall

David Birchall
  • Member

  • 3,291 posts
  • Joined: March 03

Posted 09 October 2015 - 00:37

I made it to Angouleme a couple of years ago and it was marvelous! None of the BS of Monterey/Pebbly Beach, none of the fancy dress/look at me of Goodwood, just good racing in a fantastic setting. And when you need a break-go to this restaurant, or this one, or that one over there or...Just watch the ladies don't spend too much in the shops-it might cut into the racing budget.
Wonderful!

#11 Alan Cox

Alan Cox
  • Member

  • 8,397 posts
  • Joined: March 03

Posted 09 October 2015 - 10:33

Glad to hear that Barry is back 'on song'



#12 JAPMagna

JAPMagna
  • Member

  • 41 posts
  • Joined: October 13

Posted 09 October 2015 - 12:57

Went down there on the Sunday. I'd read that it was free to watch unless you want a grandstand seat, and maybe that was true in the past and technically there are a few places to stand and watch for free, but you'll see next to nothing. They've done their best to screen off any areas that don't require you to pay to access (standing or sitting). Confusingly, when we got there, we were allowed through to one of the pay-to-view areas by mistake, but there had been a coming together as we arrived. It took them over an hour to clean up the oil from the circuit, so nothing happened for ages. We wandered out of that area (from sheer boredom), only to find out that we couldn't get back in without paying. Angouleme is a lovely city and the streets that make up the circuit are spectacular with huge gradients and tight corners, but from a spectator's point of view, your sight of the cars (even from the grandstands) is limited to glimpses of them quickly appearing and disappearing in various places.

They do have big screens to try and help you keep track of what's going on, but they also detract from the period feel of the spectacle. Typical of the French, until you got within 200 yards of the streets that formed the circuit, there was little to suggest that there was anything going on at all (other than parking spaces being a bit hard to come by). Most of the interesting cars parked around the streets were on French plates. The cafes in the square near the top of the circuit were not charging inflated prices, and some of the competing cars would pootle past in between races, which was nice.

I'm glad I went to tick it off the bucket list, and will definitely go back to Angouleme, but not when the racing is on - unless I can get a drive!

(Sorry to sound a bit negative - but I guess it just wasn't my tasse de thé)



#13 Alan Cox

Alan Cox
  • Member

  • 8,397 posts
  • Joined: March 03

Posted 09 October 2015 - 18:31

Sorry to hear that you were misled about Angouleme, JAP. It's some years since you could watch motor racing around the Ramparts for free - indeed, why should you be able to? It costs quite a sum to set up the event and ever-increasing costs have to be recouped in order to avoid being a drain on municipal resources. I think the best grandstand seat at the top hairpin is about €30, which is roughly the price of admission to a VSCC meeting in the UK, while general admission is less than that which can't be bad.



#14 pallas1970

pallas1970
  • Member

  • 271 posts
  • Joined: March 10

Posted 09 October 2015 - 20:18

Couldn't agree more Alan.  I went last year and bought a grandstand ticket, was ridiculously cheap for the quality of cars on offer, and was able to walk a few minutes in one direction to see the start line, and the other diction to see a long stretch from above.  Easily in my top ten motoring experiences with all the French-ness thrown in I would love to go each year, and race it too, James



#15 JAPMagna

JAPMagna
  • Member

  • 41 posts
  • Joined: October 13

Posted 10 October 2015 - 07:55

Sorry to hear that you were misled about Angouleme, JAP. It's some years since you could watch motor racing around the Ramparts for free - indeed, why should you be able to? It costs quite a sum to set up the event and ever-increasing costs have to be recouped in order to avoid being a drain on municipal resources. I think the best grandstand seat at the top hairpin is about €30, which is roughly the price of admission to a VSCC meeting in the UK, while general admission is less than that which can't be bad.

I don't think I was misled, I was just out-of-date. I became aware of the event a few years back and it seemed very uncommercialised (like most things French), but normally I'm not in France at that time of year. When you go to events / places for the first time, you can't help but have an imaginary expectation of what it will be like. I don't regret going, and I can see the appeal, but to enjoy a street circuit, I prefer to keep moving around to get different perspectives because you'll never see much from any one place, and it wasn't easy to do that without having to walk away from the circuit and back through other side streets, by which time a race could be all over. For anyone who hasn't been, but would like to go, I would merely suggest lowering your expectations of the racing spectacle, and to use the event as a pleasant backdrop for a visit to a lovely French city. I'm going to try the Bressuire GP next year. It sounds more like how I expected Angouleme to be, but I'll be going with lowered expectations, so may be pleasantly surprised, but it's no big deal either way.



#16 ozpata

ozpata
  • Member

  • 743 posts
  • Joined: February 10

Posted 25 October 2016 - 22:05

Angouleme_Fsm_zpsik2g4qmq.png